{Judah} 3 1/2 Years Old

Judah has grown up a lot since his third birthday, so here's what life is like with a three and a half year old!


Some of his favorite things...

-Playing:  Crazy Sand, Ninja Turtles, Lego Duplos, and winning Chutes and Ladders (he has beaten us every time!)

-TV shows:  Daniel Tiger and Curious George

-Movies:  How to Train your Dragon and Big Hero Six

-Foods:  strawberries, Goldfish, fresh juice made by Daddy, French fries, and he now has a new love for pickles!

-Things to do with Dad:  wrestle and play with flashlights in the dark

-Things to do with Mom:  help with baking and color


We had some firsts over the last six months.  Judah went to his first dentist's appointment.  They ended up not cleaning his teeth, so it was really more of a practice run.  He did get his teeth counted and got to fill the little cup with water and play with the suction straw, Mr. Thirsty.

We also went swimming a lot this winter.  A nearby town has a toddler time on some weekday mornings, so we made lots of trips to keep from going stir crazy.  Drew was able to come a couple of times and Judah has loved swimming with his dad.

Judah has gotten so good at doing puzzles.  He can put them together so quickly now and is really proud when he can finish one by himself.

Funny things he says...

-Judah has always been a talker and has a pretty good vocabulary.  But there are some words that he says that make him sound so young.  He usually pronounces his "l's" with the "y" sound.  If he wants to say "look" it sounds more like "yook."  Pretty cute toddler talk!

-He loves, loves, loves Ninja Turtles.  He's never seen the cartoons, but he has some of the toys and likes looking at pictures of the characters on the computer.  For now though, he still calls them "Engine Turtles."

finished picture of Kraang from Ninja Turtles

-Judah likes to hear the stories of how he got some of his favorite toys.  For example, he'll say, "Why did Grandma give me this toy?"  And he'll like to hear all about how she picked it out for his second birthday and he opened it at his party,


Here are some other things he's been up to...

on a lunch date with Mommy - he's my little buddy!

playing with a new Spiderman toy from Aunt Morgann and Uncle Brett...can you tell he liked the Silly String?

Judah has spent lots of time preparing for both of his new siblings.  He's come with me to several doctor's appointments and different updates we've had to do for the adoption.  He is going to be such a sweet brother.  He loves talking about his baby sister and we pray for both of his siblings every day.

 This book has been read many, many times lately.

 Keeping busy in the doctor's waiting room.

Waiting while we get fingerprinted (again!) for our updated home study.

Judah is growing up so much but we are enjoying how much fun he has become as he's getting closer to turning four.  He's such a mix of big kid (can go to the bathroom all by himself) and young toddler (still loves his naps and has to sleep with his "Tigey" every night).  We love our sweet little boy and look forward to watching him become a brother very soon!

37 Weeks

Less than a month to go!

I can't believe we are only a couple of weeks away from meeting Baby Girl.  I have been in nesting mode for the last week and we have gotten a lot of things done.  Drew loves it when I'm in the mood for cleaning and organizing, so he has been more than happy to help me.  Nesting is such a funny thing - I would not normally feel the uncontrollable urge to clean out my closet and dresser at 7:30 in the morning, but it feels so good to throw away and donate things we don't use any more.

I'm still feeling pretty good these last few weeks.  Baby Girl has been really active, so it's nice to feel all of those kicks and know she's doing well.  My gestational diabetes has been a lot easier to manage this time around.  I was so borderline to not passing the test (only a few points off on the last hour) that the specialist is only having me take my blood sugar three days a week rather than every day.

Judah is getting so antsy for his baby sister to arrive.  He tells me every day that he can't wait for her to come home.  He's been able to feel her move and get the hiccups.  She gets the hiccups all the time, just like her big brother did.

Later this week we will have our last sonogram to check on baby's size and hopefully get a few more pictures of her face.  It won't be long before we can see what she really looks like!

Baby #2 is a...

We are so excited to FINALLY share some news about who will be joining our family!

Our newest little one will be a 

GIRL!

We could not be more thrilled about having a sweet little girl.  Before hearing the news, I had fully expected to be having another boy.  I knew that it could go either way, but I guess I just pictured another little Judah and assumed that's who the baby would be.  

We were shocked at our 20 week anatomy scan to hear the doctor say that he thought we were having a girl!  There are so many things that we will love doing with a daughter, and we are so thankful that she is growing and healthy.

There was only one little catch - our little girl was very "modest" during the sonogram and did not make it very easy for the doctor to get a good shot of her gender.  At first, he was only about 70% sure, which I thought didn't really leave us with a clear answer.  But after lots of and lots of checking, we left the appointment with him saying that he would be shocked if the baby was a boy.  We felt mostly confident we knew what gender we were having, but I still didn't want to share on our blog or Facebook until we had had another sonogram to confirm.  

At our 32 week sonogram, we got lots of good pictures of the baby...and confirmation that a baby sister was on her way!  We already have her name chosen (and have had it picked for a long time) and we can't wait to share it when she is born.  Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful gift!

Brunch date at Le Peep after finding out the news